Dark World Quotes

“I discovered that what most people call creepy, scary, and spooky, I call comfy, cozy, and home.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of The Ghost Adventures Crew

“I don't deny that I get excited, but that's what happens when you're passionate about what you do.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of The Ghost Adventures Crew

“For example, it’s widely accepted that paranormal activity increases around areas of high EMF. But why? If we had a database to compare EMF readings of every paranormal investigation, we could identify patterns and when cross-referenced against temperature readings, solar activity, moon phases, proximity to water, and other data, paranormal activity might even be predicted. Now lets add another layer—the surrounding materials of the haunting. It’s widely believed that water and limestone heighten paranormal activity, hence the large number of haunted lighthouses and military forts. Now if we compare our previous data with the number of places built of limestone or in close proximity to water, we can start to form hypotheses to explain the phenomenon. A lack of a central database is hurting the research.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Paranormal phenomena do not always adhere to the known laws of physics, which may be the crux of the matter— we need to reengineer our understanding of physics and the ways of the universe. It’s very possible that we’re trying to understand forces that aren’t bound by gravity, space, or time, and may in fact exist in a different plane or dimension. That hypothesis requires a paradigm shift in our understanding of physics and presents a fundamental problem—how do we measure and test the paranormal when the building blocks of the universe are in question?”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“It’s not in keeping with the scientific model to investigate a purportedly haunted location with the intent to prove that ghosts exist. The paranormal researcher should remain neutral and unbiased throughout the investigation and let the data prove a definitive conclusion, whether that’s the one they wanted or not. They should walk into an investigation thinking, “I will document what happens and then examine the data for conclusions.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Emotions frequently contaminate the data. Physicist and Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg said, “What we observe is not nature itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.” Scientific inquiry must be unbiased to generate objective and reliable data. Since paranormal researchers generally believe in the afterlife already (especially when investigating the spirit of a departed loved one), they are frequently not as objective as they should be. Too many researchers have already reached a conclusion before they start an investigation and do their best to skew their findings in the direction of that conclusion.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“The core of traditional science’s derision of the paranormal field is that it’s filled with amateurs armed only with off-the-shelf equipment who do not adhere to the “scientific method” of research, which has been shaped and reshaped over the course of human history.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Paranormal investigation has been labeled a pseudoscience and discredited as fantasy by traditional scientists for decades. Most traditional scientists believe that paranormal researchers read crystal balls, hold hands in a circle, or conjure up false spirits through cheap parlor tricks with smoke and mirrors at carnivals for profit. Can you feel the love between the two fields? Traditional science is anything but flawless. At some point in history, science tried to convince us that the world was flat, the world was the center of the universe, and that tobacco was not harmful. It’s not that traditional science is full of idiots, but that their conclusions were based on incomplete information. I feel that both traditional scientists and paranormal investigators seek to find answers to the same questions and can compliment each other through comparative research. There are phenomena in this world that we cannot explain and it doesn’t matter which side of the aisle you’re on—believer or skeptic—we all want the same thing: the truth. I really hope we all can work together to find these answers in the future.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“three levels of possession, all of which have their own “cures.” The first level is an infestation. It’s the lowest level and occurs when a demonic entity has made a nest in a building, but has not yet chosen a human body to reside in. Sometimes the demon intends to reside there without disturbing the humans it comes across and sometimes its intent is much more dastardly. The middle level is oppression. This is when a demon has chosen a human host and is trying to destroy its intellect and will. This is sometimes referred to as a transient stage when the demon is not fully in control of the human, but is trying to achieve it. To banish this level of demon, a priest like Bishop Long can perform a minor rite of exorcism. The highest level is full possession. At this point the demonic entity has full control of the human host and requires a solemn rite of exorcism to banish it. A demon can and will bring about death to its human host if it is not banished.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Does the sanity of a person matter after death? If you were mentally ill in life, are you still mentally ill in death?”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“We come here and communicate with the history. The history is not dead. The history is still alive in another form.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Supporting this theory is the Law of Energy Conservation, which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed in a closed system. According to this law, all energy in the universe has already been made and our physical bodies are merely containers for our own personal energy. If the body is a container of energy, then when it dies its energy is released back into the universe the same way air is released back into the atmosphere when a balloon pops. But does it remain intact with all of its knowledge, experiences, emotions, and identity or does it simply dissipate back into the environment and lose everything that it was? This is a critical question for our field and one of the keys we all seek to unlock.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“I felt like Ray in the movie Field of Dreams when only he and his family could see the ghosts in his cornfield. Then finally that one moment came when everyone could see them. The smile on Kevin Costner's face was my smile, but it wasn't in a fictional movie”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of The Ghost Adventures Crew

“There’s also the question of money that holds paranormal research back. There is little to no profit in creating a center for paranormal research and only by creating entertainment shows out of investigations can researchers continue to have funds to carry out their work. Until paranormal investigators can demonstrate the practical value of their research to the public they will continue to be on the fringe and not receive real funding to advance the science. Ironically the paranormal was once a wellfunded field with interest from prestigious universities and the federal government. But it was an immature science that still had to find its value, which it is doing now.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Simply saying, “I saw a spirit and I know what I saw,” isn’t enough and does nothing to advance the field of paranormal research. Empirical, observable evidence has to be gathered. Skeptics frequently use the “cognitive function” defense to explain away paranormal activity, so multiple electronic recording devices (video and audio) are a must when conducting paranormal research to limit the margin of error. We’ll look more at this later in the chapter.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Some paranormal activity can be justifiably explained as a cognitive action. “It’s all in your mind,” as some would say. And sometimes it is, as I will explain soon. The human brain is one of the frontiers that we still do not fully understand, and there are certainly phenomena that can be explained as tricks of the mind. Apparitions moving out of the corner of the eye are especially open to skepticism because it’s been proven that objects on a person’s periphery can seem to move when they’re not.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“We can’t identify patterns and correlations. There’s no consortium on the findings. There’s no great library of paranormal evidence.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“When experimentation is complete, researchers are expected to document and share their data and methodology so they are available for careful scrutiny by other scientists. This allows other researchers the chance to verify results by attempting to reproduce them and allows statistical measures of the reliability of these data to be established. This is called “full disclosure” and is an area that the paranormal field is lacking in. Currently there is no repository of paranormal data or body of evidence that researchers can turn to for comparing data. Television shows and websites that document paranormal activity are really our only outlet. The drawback to not having a database is that researchers cannot identify patterns of activity and therefore can’t derive theories or explanations of the paranormal.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Paranormal activity cannot be replicated in a laboratory environment and therefore cannot be studied as closely as a natural science, like chemistry or biology. So the inability to replicate the phenomena makes verification and categorization of paranormal events very difficult and erodes the credibility of the science. After all, if we could summon spirits of the departed consistently and reliably in order to study them, there would be a whole new market in trans-dimensional communications.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“The scientific method relies on repeatable experimentation to verify or deny data. Spirits of the departed are intelligent beings that don’t always display a predictable pattern of behavior. They come and go at their leisure and have always proven to be elusive and inconsistent, maybe because they are frequently unaware of their state (deceased) and environment (the location and year).”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Believing in demons is an admission that there are servants of hell and forces of darkness out there. Evil challenges our core beliefs in religion and forces people to admit there is not just a heaven and hell, but a judgment day and an almighty power that chooses which one we go to.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“For many people this is an uncomfortable topic. To believe in heaven you also have to accept the concept of hell and to believe in guardian angels, you have to accept the notion of nefarious demons as well. You really can’t believe in one without the other.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“According to the Catholic Church, an entity is either a demon or a human spirit, but not both. A human spirit cannot possess a living human. Demons are actually fallen angels with intelligence. At one time they were good, but for some reason they were sent back to Earth and turned dark. Demonic entities are not limited in their intensity, either. They don’t have special powers, but do not have to rest like we do either.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“The solemn rite of exorcism that he sensed is no joke. It’s the highest level of antidemonic incantation in the Catholic Church and is reserved for only the worst of the worst demonic entities. It’s used only when a full possession has occurred and a place needs to be completely cleansed.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Fallen angels, or demons, are able to “demonically possess” individuals without the victim’s knowledge or consent, so they are not responsible for their actions while being possessed. Possession can last for as little as a few minutes or as long as several months.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“EMF has been associated with causing sensations of disorientation, fear, nausea, and the feeling that a presence is in a room with you. I believe people can sometimes find themselves in a high EMF (sometimes called a “Fear Cage”) and get the feeling that they’re not alone when in fact they’re caught in a high EMF and being tricked by it. So it’s possible to blame spirits for something that’s perfectly natural.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“The tricky part about EMF, though, is its interaction with the human brain. Electromagnetic fields affect our perception, as does infrasound and seismic activity”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Electromagnetism is the force that causes the interaction of electrically charged particles in our world, which takes place in an electrically charged field. Other than gravity, nothing affects our existence more than electromagnetism. Electric fields, electric currents, generators, motors, batteries, transformers, magnetic fields, magnets, and the magnetosphere that surrounds the Earth are all forms of electromagnetism. It’s the force responsible for holding electrons and protons together in atoms, so it’s a building block for molecules and all life as we know it. If there’s one constant relationship in paranormal research it’s the connection between EMF and spirits, either intelligent or residual. Almost every time paranormal activity happens, there is an increase in EMF, so it’s imperative that we understand how it works with spirits and their energy. The leading theory is that ghosts emit electromagnetic energy and cause spikes in electromagnetic fields (EMF). The common belief is that they gather energy in and send EMF out. So there is a directly proportional relationship between spirits and EMF and a simultaneous inversely proportional relationship between spirits and available energy.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“Electromagnetism is defined as one of the four fundamental interactions of particles in nature. The other three are gravity, the strong interaction, and the weak interaction—also known as the strong and weak nuclear forces.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

“I say this—after six million years of evolution, is there anything else more in tune with the planet than the human body? We grow muscles to withstand fourteen pounds of air pressure per square inch at sea level. We develop senses to detect changes in wind patterns and know when a storm is approaching. We can hear threatening footsteps approaching and feel the stares of an angry ex-girlfriend as her eyes burn a hole in our back. We have millions of nerve endings in our skin to feel our environment. In short, we evolve. We become more in tune with the world, like birds that use the Earth’s magnetic field to help guide them on their long migration or mammals that can feel winter coming and prepare for hibernation. So when my body tells me there’s a spirit present, I trust it.”
― Zak Bagans, Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew